Emily Y. Chew, M.D. is the director of the Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications and the deputy clinical director at the National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Currently, Dr. Chew is the director of the medical retina fellowship program at the NEI.

Dr. Chew is a medical retina specialist and has had extensive experience in designing and implementing clinical trials (of Phases 1, 2 and 3) at the NIH Clinical Center. Dr. Chew has a strong clinical and research interest in diabetic eye disease and age-related eye diseases. She has thoroughly worked on analyzing the data from the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) and she continues to manage and analyze data from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS). Dr. Chew works on a number of diabetes studies to evaluate genetic associations with diabetic eye disease. In addition, she is working on a large clinical trial called the Actions to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD), testing the effects of tight control of blood sugar, blood pressure and lipid concentration in the blood on diabetic eye disease.

Currently, Dr. Chew is the study chair for the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2), a Phase 3 study that is investigating the use of lutein/zeaxanthin (found in leafy greens such as kale) and/or omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids as treatment for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cataracts. For Dr. Chew any disease that causes blindness is of great importance, no matter how common